Professional Perspectives on Supporting People With Dementia Who Live Alone and Have No Informal Support: A Qualitative Study

People with dementia can live alone successfully even when they do not have support from family or friends. This requires professionals to be able to provide timely and effective support. This study aims to identify professional perspectives on the challenges and strategies in supporting people with dementia who live alone and have no informal support. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with twenty-two professionals working in dementia-related roles across various sectors in England. Interviews were analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Themes were finalised through support of the study advisory team, including people with lived experience of dementia. Six themes were identified, reflecting stages of the ‘dementia care pathway’, from identification of patients to discharge. Professionals reported experiencing barriers around identifying clients, communicating with them, gathering information, engaging with them, managing risks, and setting up continuity of care. They shared strategies for each of these challenges. This study identified some key strategies that a variety of professionals can deploy to promote access and use of services for an especially vulnerable population to be able to live independently for as long as possible. These strategies would need to be embedded and consistently implemented across different sectors. This would ensure that people are identified and supported in a timely fashion and could, in turn, prevent more costly long-term care and contribute to cost-containment.